topic Re: Teen Travel in Europe in Credit Cards

Teen Travel in Europe

Ragnar375 — Tue, 28 Feb 2023 04:51:25 GMT

We are sending our 17 yo son on a 10 day trip to Europe (France and Germany) this summer with his high school.

He's a trustworthy kid, solid A/B student, but hasn't exhibited the best money management skills.

He will need a means to pay for a few meals not included in the trip price, tips, souvenirs, etc. He has a Visa debit card for his USAA checking and savings account and we plan to send him with $200 cash in pocket for misc whatnots.

However, I'd also like to be able to send him with a credit card that stays in his luggage/room should something extreme and unexpected come up or if his wallet get lost or stolen. (Thinking a $5k limit?).

All of my credit cards have FTF fees, plus would like something he can be an authorized user on now, but help him establish his own credit when he turns 18.
My FICO Bankcard scores are 692, 696, and 650.

Any suggestions for a credit card best suited?

Thanks in advance.

Re: Teen Travel in Europe

ChargedUp — Tue, 28 Feb 2023 05:14:28 GMT

@Ragnar375 wrote:
We are sending our 17 yo son on a 10 day trip to Europe (France and Germany) this summer with his high school.

He's a trustworthy kid, solid A/B student, but hasn't exhibited the best money management skills.

He will need a means to pay for a few meals not included in the trip price, tips, souvenirs, etc. He has a Visa debit card for his USAA checking and savings account and we plan to send him with $200 cash in pocket for misc whatnots.

However, I'd also like to be able to send him with a credit card that stays in his luggage/room should something extreme and unexpected come up or if his wallet get lost or stolen. (Thinking a $5k limit?).

All of my credit cards have FTF fees, plus would like something he can be an authorized user on now, but help him establish his own credit when he turns 18.
My FICO Bankcard scores are 692, 696, and 650.
Any suggestions for a credit card best suited?

Thanks in advance.

Fico 8 Bankcard isn't truly the same as a standard Fico 8, but loosely using those scores, I would try the pre-qual page at Capital One and see what they offer. ALL of Cap One's cards are no FTF so anything they offer would work.

Edit to add: What are your current cards/lenders? It may be possible for you to product change a current card you have for a no FTF card as well

Re: Teen Travel in Europe

bourgogne — Tue, 28 Feb 2023 07:03:20 GMT

@Ragnar375 wrote:
We are sending our 17 yo son on a 10 day trip to Europe (France and Germany) this summer with his high school.

He's a trustworthy kid, solid A/B student, but hasn't exhibited the best money management skills.

He will need a means to pay for a few meals not included in the trip price, tips, souvenirs, etc. He has a Visa debit card for his USAA checking and savings account and we plan to send him with $200 cash in pocket for misc whatnots.

However, I'd also like to be able to send him with a credit card that stays in his luggage/room should something extreme and unexpected come up or if his wallet get lost or stolen. (Thinking a $5k limit?).

All of my credit cards have FTF fees, plus would like something he can be an authorized user on now, but help him establish his own credit when he turns 18.
My FICO Bankcard scores are 692, 696, and 650.
Any suggestions for a credit card best suited?

Thanks in advance.

hello. I would not send him there with any us cash, I assume the airport drop/pickup is covered. put $500 in the ATM and he can pull euro out of any atm there as he needs it. forget about ftfs, he is not paying for air or lodging or any big ticket items, it does not matter. do you have a military affiliation? you, father, grandfather, anybody? if so, nfcu is your ticket, get either a primary card from them or if denied deposit $5K for a secured card with that sl. then make him an au on it. go to experian.com, do a $1 trial, refresh all 3 scores and post them. why are your scores low? france and germany, those are the right places to go, hopefully he is going to munich, such a great city

edit: for clarity, after you sign up for the ex trial and pull all 3 scores go to membership and downgrade the account. you can do this right away, don't forget

Re: Teen Travel in Europe

CYBERSAM — Tue, 28 Feb 2023 05:41:51 GMT

I have used Cap1 Venture and Quicksilver overseas with no issues! They have no FTF and probably give you the least hard time about transaction approvals!

You can monitor AU spending and make extra payments if needed, therefore no need to have a large credit limit available.

Re: Teen Travel in Europe

Anonymous — Tue, 28 Feb 2023 12:54:23 GMT

@bourgogne wrote:
forget about ftfs, he is not paying for air or lodging or any big ticket items, it does not matter.

I was thinking this. If the only use for the card is going to be "emergencies only" there is little point in getting a no FTF card just for this if you can add him to one of yours. If you plan on international travel in the nearish future, then it is probably worth getting one.

No FTF on no AF cards used to be rare, basically CapitalOne, but now there are lots of choices, Cap One is still a reasonable option

Re: Teen Travel in Europe

markbeiser — Tue, 28 Feb 2023 20:13:27 GMT

Something unrelated to consider.
Make sure his smart phone isn't going to cost you a fortune for him to use during the trip, especially data.
You don't want to contribute to the many MANY horror stories of several thousand dollar cell phone bills...

Re: Teen Travel in Europe

bourgogne — Tue, 28 Feb 2023 20:21:19 GMT

@markbeiser wrote:
Something unrelated to consider.
Make sure his smart phone isn't going to cost you a fortune for him to use during the trip, especially data.
You don't want to contribute to the many MANY horror stories of several thousand dollar cell phone bills...

good catch and this is no joke. its the only reason I stick with t-mobile, n/c international roaming

Re: Teen Travel in Europe

markbeiser — Tue, 28 Feb 2023 21:05:05 GMT

@bourgogne wrote:
@markbeiser wrote:
Something unrelated to consider.
Make sure his smart phone isn't going to cost you a fortune for him to use during the trip, especially data.
You don't want to contribute to the many MANY horror stories of several thousand dollar cell phone bills...
good catch and this is no joke. its the only reason I stick with t-mobile, n/c international roaming

I've heard of way worse, but a friend of mine's kid racked up almost $6k in data usage on a 2 week trip to Germany.🤣

Re: Teen Travel in Europe

SpaceCityCCuser — Tue, 28 Feb 2023 21:31:46 GMT

@markbeiser wrote:
@bourgogne wrote:
@markbeiser wrote:
Something unrelated to consider.
Make sure his smart phone isn't going to cost you a fortune for him to use during the trip, especially data.
You don't want to contribute to the many MANY horror stories of several thousand dollar cell phone bills...
good catch and this is no joke. its the only reason I stick with t-mobile, n/c international roaming
I've heard of way worse, but a friend of mine's kid racked up almost $6k in data usage on a 2 week trip to Germany.🤣

Ahh yes, I actually got the Google Fi sim card when I went to Europe. It was good to be able to call people when I walked off the plane. I then bought local sim cards for my family's phones. It's not a bad option, make sure your phone is unlocked if you bought it through a cell service provider also.

Re: Teen Travel in Europe

Anonymous — Tue, 28 Feb 2023 22:43:41 GMT

Also, make sure that you CAN actually make calls (you may need to explain to your children that that is special mode that the phone supports).

I was at Heathrow last December when there were multi-day delays to some destinations. A young American woman had been trying to go somewhere (maybe Sweden) and flights had been cancelled for 2 days, and when she went online to rebook, as instructed, she was eventually told that it cannot be handled online and she should call.. (the BA centre with several hour hold times!) She explained at the desk that her phone didn't work in the UK.

Being "the customer is hardly ever right, and even then" UK, she was eventually told to leave so that they could deal with customers trying to check in for the next flight and "come back later", presumably at a time when there were no flights departing (which at a little local airport like Heathrow is, um ,never). I felt sorry for her, although, being a Brit, not my problem..... Certainly in the old days you could have a phone that didn't work at all in the UK (CDMA for example) but probably now it's just a case of making sure that the plan allows some calls both back home and in country...

(We are not all quite that cold hearted. There was an American 17 year old who had been stuck at the airport for 3 days, didn't know anyone, and was trying to go home. As she was almost crying, rather than being brash like the first one, staff were attempting to assist her)

Re: Teen Travel in Europe

Ragnar375 — Tue, 04 Apr 2023 18:29:19 GMT

Have an acient centurion Amex, Discover, couple Visa BOA and Target visa.

Card scores are now 692, 696, and 651.
Standard scores are 691, 702 and 667.

Low due to

1. high use percentage of avail credit.
2. two accts with past dues:

First is one past 30 on mortgage in 2018 (WF. last of a bad spot we hit in 2012'ish). Second is two past 30 on HELOC in 2022 (BOA. Busy time and genuinely just forgot).
3. 8-10 hard inquiries last March on same day all from same car dealer.

Oddly enough, our DTI is 30% and everything else is well- diversed and perfect.

Re: Teen Travel in Europe

red259 — Tue, 04 Apr 2023 23:17:28 GMT

@Anonymous wrote:
Also, make sure that you CAN actually make calls (you may need to explain to your children that that is special mode that the phone supports).

I was at Heathrow last December when there were multi-day delays to some destinations. A young American woman had been trying to go somewhere (maybe Sweden) and flights had been cancelled for 2 days, and when she went online to rebook, as instructed, she was eventually told that it cannot be handled online and she should call.. (the BA centre with several hour hold times!) She explained at the desk that her phone didn't work in the UK.

Being "the customer is hardly ever right, and even then" UK, she was eventually told to leave so that they could deal with customers trying to check in for the next flight and "come back later", presumably at a time when there were no flights departing (which at a little local airport like Heathrow is, um ,never). I felt sorry for her, although, being a Brit, not my problem..... Certainly in the old days you could have a phone that didn't work at all in the UK (CDMA for example) but probably now it's just a case of making sure that the plan allows some calls both back home and in country...

(We are not all quite that cold hearted. There was an American 17 year old who had been stuck at the airport for 3 days, didn't know anyone, and was trying to go home. As she was almost crying, rather than being brash like the first one, staff were attempting to assist her)

An earlier post mentioned not bringing cash. That is a terrible idea. You should ALWAYS have some emergency US cash. Don't have to touch it but in a foreign country you can run in to all sorts of problems such as the ones described above. On a trip a few years ago I was in Bali and I could not connect to my online bank account to move funds from one account to another. Since I was using a sim card there was no way for the bank to verify me or some nonsense. The hotel long distance phone lines didn't work for like a day or two. Eventually I got things sorted by having the hotel office get involved or whatever but the whole thing was a hassle.

I ran into trouble in another country where someone, I think it was capital one, insisted they had to send me verification on an airfare or train ticket I was trying to purchase online in a foreign country. Unfortunatly they were texting the verification to my US number which I did not have access to. The customer service reps were complete morons. I'm literally calling them from a foreign country and they were refusing to verify me because they insisted I had to click on the stupid thing on the phone that they texted to a US line and that was the ONLY way to verify it. No other options they wouldn't even send the text to my business line or send an email. I was soo pissed with their nonsense because it had me stranded somewhere in a foreign country. Totally unacceptble for a travel credit card.

You keep the cash for emergencies. You never know if an atm may eat your card or you could get robbed etc. I have come across countless people who are stranded in foreign cities because they lost or had their passport stolen. Thankfully that has never happened to me but I have seen it happen to a number of people over the years and its a real PITA.

Re: Teen Travel in Europe

K-in-Boston — Wed, 05 Apr 2023 00:26:50 GMT

@Ragnar375 wrote:
Have an acient centurion Amex, Discover, couple Visa BOA and Target visa.

I'm assuming this is a misstatement? Or you do have the invite-only Amex Centurion Card?

Re: Teen Travel in Europe

Remedios — Wed, 05 Apr 2023 00:35:23 GMT

@K-in-Boston wrote:
@Ragnar375 wrote:
Have an acient centurion Amex, Discover, couple Visa BOA and Target visa.

I'm assuming this is a misstatement? Or you do have the invite-only Amex Centurion Card?

I can smell your fear

Re: Teen Travel in Europe

bourgogne — Wed, 05 Apr 2023 00:38:27 GMT

@Remedios wrote:
@K-in-Boston wrote:
@Ragnar375 wrote:
Have an acient centurion Amex, Discover, couple Visa BOA and Target visa.

I'm assuming this is a misstatement? Or you do have the invite-only Amex Centurion Card?

I can smell your fear

thank you, I did not know that my laptop screen & keyboard enjoyed electrolyte drinks so much

Re: Teen Travel in Europe

K-in-Boston — Wed, 05 Apr 2023 00:38:28 GMT

@Remedios wrote:
@K-in-Boston wrote:
@Ragnar375 wrote:
Have an acient centurion Amex, Discover, couple Visa BOA and Target visa.

I'm assuming this is a misstatement? Or you do have the invite-only Amex Centurion Card?

I can smell your fear

I thought my tears of jealousy would wash the smell away.

Re: Teen Travel in Europe

Anonymous — Wed, 05 Apr 2023 01:49:22 GMT

@red259 wrote:

An earlier post mentioned not bringing cash. That is a terrible idea. You should ALWAYS have some emergency US cash. Don't have to touch it but in a foreign country you can run in to all sorts of problems such as the ones described above. On a trip a few years ago I was in Bali and I could not connect to my online bank account to move funds from one account to another.

I agree, always have some emergency US cash, and, if possible, some local currency before you go. As @red259 says, that airport ATM can eat your card, your international roaming isn't working as expected and ..... Just worth it for the slightly added safety